Carmarthen Journal

Winners build nesting boxes for wild birds

- BRONTE HOWARD Reporter bronte.howard@walesonlin­e.co.uk

A TEAM of handy National Lottery winners spent the winter lockdown building nest boxes to house some of Wales’s woodland bird population.

Davinia and Jeff Pritchard, from Porthyrhyd, near Carmarthen, won £1million on the Euromillio­ns UK Millionair­e Maker draw in June 2015.

But instead of splashing out on luxury cars or a holiday home, the creative winners build nesting boxes to help bolster the birds’ presence in two Welsh nature reserves.

The sites include Gelli Hir Wood in Gower and Melincwrt Waterfalls in the Neath Valley where the Wildlife Trust team hopes they can used to encourage woodland birds, including robins, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, goldfinche­s and chaffinche­s, to nest.

Davinia and Jeff know how important it is to give birds and animals a home of their own, having built a smallholdi­ng from scratch.

As well as completely transformi­ng their own house, they have built a sheep shed, chicken house and beehives.

The couple, who made 12 nest boxes in total, were excited to visit Gelli Hir Woods, on the edge of be

Fairwood Common in Gower, to deliver the boxes and see for themselves how and where they would be used by the Wildlife Trust.

Jeff said: “The last 12 months have been hard going and it was great to have a project to get stuck into. Looking after our animals keeps me busy for a lot of the week but it was good to have something new to focus on.

“I really enjoyed being able to make something, especially something that is being put to such good use.”

Davinia, who is a call handler co-ordinator for the Welsh Ambulance Service and has worked nonstop during the pandemic,

said: “The day job can get pretty intense at times, so it was a relief to be able to switch off and do something hands-on. I let Jeff build the nest boxes and I was in charge of painting and decorating – just like at home!

“It was also lovely to be working on a project with so many other Lottery winners and to see the nest boxes they came up

with. Some of the winners are so creative and their boxes were all completely different and totally original.”

Davinia and Jeff were joined by other Welsh winners including Faye and Richard Davies from Brecon, David Taylor from Talbot Green, Julie Amphlett, Doreen Thompson and Louise Haran from Neath Port

Talbot,

Sophie

Swansea.

Although they couldn’t work together in person, the team all took inspiratio­n from one another, sharing images of their creations online.

Paul Thornton, senior officer at Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, said: “As people are allowed to travel more

and Will Richards and from widely again, it will be lovely to have new nest boxes to attract birds and to allow our visitors to see the birds nesting.

“We’re grateful to the winners for their hard work – and to players of the National Lottery too.” ■ You can see a Youtube video of Davinia and Jeff Pritchard’s story at https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=u7sa1zqjzm­4

 ??  ?? Paul Thornton and Davinia Pritchard with the National Lottery nest boxes.
Paul Thornton and Davinia Pritchard with the National Lottery nest boxes.

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